Rhiannon Ingle
Team Canada has been at the centre of a cheating controversy during the Winter Olympics after a foul-mouthed exchange during the curling event.
Canadian curler Marc Kennedy found himself in a war of words with Sweden's Oskar Eriksson, who accused him of cheating on Friday evening (13 February).
An irate Kennedy told Eriksson to 'f**k off' twice, before adding: "I don’t give a s**t. They [Olympics officials] were standing here and didn’t call it."
Kennedy has since stated he regrets his choice of language, but has no regrets about 'defending' himself and his teammates.
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The Swedish team, which lost 8-6, accused members of the Canadian side of double-touching, which is when stones are touched on or after the hog line, the point by which a stone must be released.
"You can’t take it [the swearing] back. You learn from it, move on and try to get the focus back on the curling," Kennedy said on Saturday (14 February). "But I’ll be honest, my whole life, when my integrity has been questioned, sometimes that’s the response I have."
He went on: "I can’t think of once in my entire career where I’ve done something to gain a competitive advantage by cheating. I take that very seriously. And it’s been a really long career. So when you get called out, my instinct was to be a little bit of a bulldog."
The athlete resolved: "I don’t regret defending myself or my teammates in that moment. I just probably regret the language I used."
You can watch the exchange below, it contains strong language:
World Curling said no violations were recorded during the three ends in which deliveries were monitored during Friday’s match, but it has increased the level of umpiring from Saturday’s afternoon session.
Kennedy added: "It was planned right from the word go yesterday, from the words that were being said by their coaches and the way they were running to the officials.
"It was kind of evident that something was going on, and they were trying to catch us in the act."
Eriksson said on Saturday: "I don’t think he has slept too well, while I slept like a baby. He has not apologised."
World Curling communications chief Chris Hamilton has since confirmed in a statement obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that no violations were committed during the match.
The statement reads: "The issue of second touches of the stone, specifically the granite, during the delivery was brought to the umpire’s attention.
"Officials spoke with both teams and set game umpires at the hogline to monitor deliveries for three ends, which is the official protocol following this type of complaint.
"There were no hogline violations or retouches of the stone during the observation period."
The Canadian women’s curling side was later accused of the same violation that Team Sweden levelled at Canada's men's team, with Rachel Homan being called for 'double-touching' during Canada’s match against Team Switzerland on Saturday (14 February).
After officials made the call, Homan pushed back on it, per The Washington Post and Fox News, saying: "Like, absolutely not. Zero-percent chance."
Teammates challenged why the decision was not reviewable and were reportedly told to trust the umpire, per the Post.
Expletives could reportedly be heard in the Canadian huddle before play resumed.
Speaking after the defeat, Homan said the earlier controversy involving the men’s team had placed added and unfair scrutiny on her rink.
"I don’t understand the call. I’ll never understand it. We’ve never done that. It has nothing to do with us," she said.
Under World Curling rules, in-game reviews are not conducted using video replay, reports Fox News.
Switzerland went on to edge the match 8-7 at the Cortina Curling Centre.
Tyla has reached out to World Curling for further comment.